JANUARY 20, 2010
MONARCH MEN SURVIVE FOUL WOES TO POST 74-66 FREEDOM CONFERENCE
WILKES-BARRE -- Mike Wagner scored 24 points and the King's College men's basketball team survived second-half foul trouble as the Monarchs squeezed out a 74-66 victory over Misericordia University Wednesday in Scandlon Gymnasium.
With the win, the Monarchs improved to 9-8 overall and are in sole possession of second place in the Freedom Conference with a 5-1 mark. Misericordia, meanwhile, slipped to 8-8 and 2-4 in league play.
The King's-Misericordia men's and women's double-header also served as a fund-raising venture to assist earthquake victims in Haiti. Spectators from both schools contributed a total of $2,040 which will go to the Haitian people.
Misericordia came out of the gates on fire and jumped out to a 25-12 lead with 9:11 left in the first half, canning four three-pointers in the process. The Monarchs slowly chipped away as a three-pointer from Wagner, a jumper by Jim Schule and an inside bucket by Mike McCready keyed a 12-1 run as the Monarchs clawed to within 26-24 on a Kyle Stackhouse jumper with 5:01 remaining in the first half.
After Marcus Little made two foul shots to put the Cougars on top 30-26, the Monarchs countered with a 6-1 spurt to take its first lead since the opening basket of the game when Wagner hit another three-pointer to put the Monarchs ahead 32-31 with 0:36 on the clock. The Cougars, however, took a 33-32 lead into the locker room when Sean Bieski scored on a driving lay-up with 0:02 left.
In the second half the teams traded three-pointer as Misericordia held a 36-35 lead. After two scoreless minutes of play, Wagner canned another three-pointer to ignite a 10-0 King's run. A bucket from Schule, another trey by Wagner, and four straight points from Mike McCready to lift King's to a 47-37 lead with 15:04 remaining in the contest. The Monarch lead would later grow to 13 points twice, the first coming at 52-39 on two foul shots by Matt Fiorino at 12:32, then again at 11:28 when Danny Maguschak made good on a pair of charity tosses to elevate the Monarch lead to 54-41 with 11:28 to go.
Misericordia cut the lead to 54-46 on a three-pointer by Little with 9:43 to play and the Monarchs later received a big blow when leading scorer and rebounder Kevin Conroy fouled out with 8:14 to play.
Misericordia used a three-pointer by Jeff Slanovec and a lay-up from Dom Del Prete to close to within 54-51 with 7:30 on the clock. After McCready made two foul shots for King's, Del Prete converted a driving lay-up to bring the score to 56-53 with 6:34 on the clock. The Cougars eventually came to within 61-60 on a Slanovec trey with 4:09 remaining.
But King's answered with a three-pointer from Schule and a jumper by Stackhouse to forge ahead 66-60 with 2:25 on the clock. Misericordia managed to cut the lead to 68-64 on a Bieski lay-up at the 0:44 mark. With Misericordia forced to foul, the Monarchs capitalized as McCready made 4-of-4 attempts while Schule made two of his own to put the game away.
Wagner finished the game by making 7-of-11 from three-point range, registering the third most three-pointers in King's history. Schule tallied 14 points and eight rebounds while McCready came off the bench to tally 14 points and seven rebounds. Stackhouse added nine points and nine rebounds while Maguschal chipped in with seven points and five boards. Conroy played just 17 minutes in the game and finished with four points and five rebounds.
Del Prete led the Cougars with 22 points, including the 1,000th of his career, with eight rebounds. Slanovec added 15 points while Little followed with 13 points.
King's returns to the hard wood on Saturday with a 4:00 p.m. contest at defending Freedom Conference champion DeSales University.
KING'S COLLEGE 74, MISERICORDIA 66
MISERICORDIA (8-8/2-4 Freedom)
Dom Del Prete 6-16 9-14 22; Jeff Slanovec 5-15 0-1 15; Marcus Little 3-5 6-7 13; Robbie Johnson 3-11 3-4 9; Sean Bieski 2-3 0-0 4; Mark Williams 1-6 0-0
3; Mark Leonard 0-0 0-0 0; Ethan Eichhorst 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 18-26 66.
KING'S COLLEGE (9-8/5-1 Freedom)
Mike Wagner 8-13 0-0 23; Mike McCready 3-4 8-8 14; Jim Schule 5-8 3-5 14; Kyle Stackhouse 4-11 1-2 9; Dan Maguschak 2-7 3-3 7; Kevin Conroy 2-3 0-0 4;
Matt Fiorino 1-3 1-1 3; Nick Reisig 0-4 0-0 0; Adam Brasky 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-53 16-19 74.
Misericordia.................. 33 33 - 66
King's………................. 32 42 - 74
3-point goals--Misericordia 8-21 (Jeff Slanovec 5-12; Dom Del Prete 1-3; Mark Williams 1-1; Marcus Little 1-1; Ethan Eichhorst 0-1; Robbie Johnson 0-3), King's College 8-19 (Mike Wagner 7-11; Jim Schule 1-1; Dan Maguschak 0-1; Matt Fiorino 0-2; Nick Reisig 0-4). Fouled out--Misericordia-Mark Williams, King's College-Kevin Conroy. Rebounds--Misericordia 35 (Dom Del Prete 8), King's College 38 (Kyle Stackhouse 9). Assists--Misericordia 9 (Marcus Little 3; Robbie Johnson 3), King's College 16 (Kyle Stackhouse 9). Total fouls--Misericordia 21, King's College 24. Technical fouls--Misericordia-None, King's College-None. A-968
